New photography book pays homage to river towns (video)

By ANN GIBBONS

Thursday, December 15, 2011

BEAUTIFUL TO BEHOLD, fascinating to read, "Hudson River Towns: Highlights from the Capital Region to Sleepy Hollow Country," with photos by Hardie Truesdale of Gardiner and text by Joanne Michaels of Woodstock is a captivating journey to communities along both sides of the mighty Hudson that lures the reader to give one, keep one.

Michaels, in an interview at the Freeman this week, said she carried the book idea around in her head for a long time. "Convincing Hardie was the challenge," she said.

The book is the third on which Michaels and Truesdale have collaborated. Former editor-in-chief of Hudson Valley Magazine, Michaels said she had seen veteran photographer Truesdale's work years before and brought him on board to shoot photos for the magazine covers.

Truesdale's photographs have been represented by galleries throughout the country. National Geographic Books, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, the Mohonk Preserve and the Nature Conservancy all have featured his work.

Michaels is the author of numerous books, including "Hudson River Valley Farms: The People and The Pride Behind the Produce," "The Hudson Valley and Catskill Mounts: An Explorer's Guide" and "Let's Take the Kids," a regional resource for parents living or visiting the area.

Michaels, who grew up in Shrub Oaks outside Piermont, said she's always loved the small towns and villages that make up the region.

"I was interested, not just in their history, but also in how they developed. I wanted to capture the way they were and the way they are now," she said.

"The Hudson River is 315 miles long. We covered about half its length in the book, starting in Albany and ending in Tarrytown," she said.

The book covers eight cities or towns in the Upper Hudson River Valley; 10 cities and town in the mid-Hudson Valley and six cities and town in the lower Hudson Valley.

Serendipitous timing led Michaels to Excelsior Editions, an imprint of State University of New York Press in Albany, the book's publisher.

"SUNY Press was expanding its line of regional publications and was immediately interested in the project," Michaels said.

Michaels described the resulting book as "fabulous. It's 160 pages with 125 full-color photos, printed on high-quality paper. The publishers did a wonderful job and kept the price reasonable."

Michaels said she determined which towns in the upper, middle and lower Hudson Valley to be included and photographed. "Most of the towns are in this area - Hudson, Catskill, Saugerties, Poughkeepsie, Beacon and Newburgh," she said.

"I would have loved to have covered every town, but being the author I had to make some tough choices," Michaels said. "I chose towns that had a certain history, but now were vibrant, interesting places to visit."

But, Michaels said, she did not write a history tome although historical information is included. "I also tried to include fun kinds of facts about the various river towns," she said.

For instance, Michaels said, at one time, Beacon had more than 500 hat factories; Smith Bros. Cough drops, their sweet cherry flavor once familiar to every child with a cold, were produced in Poughkeepsie until 1972 and Fleischmann's Yeast once was an important industry in the Peekskill area.

Michaels also focused on the former Hudson River industries of brick making, ice fishing, cement production and blue stone quarrying in telling her stories of the towns.

Michaels did the research and wrote the text. She said she did some research online, but most information she sought is not available electronically.

"I went to libraries and took out lots and lots of books," Michaels said. "That's how I discovered those arcane tidbits that are fun to read about," she said.

She said she learned, for example, the origin of the word, "Rondout," is a corruption of "Redout," meaning an enclosed, fortified area.

"Sometimes, I called the town historian to clarify certain facts. It was like a daisy chain. One thing lead to another," Michaels said.

Ultimately, however, Michaels said "Hudson River Towns" is the photographer's book. It is Truesdale's images that draw in and hold the eye.

"The way Hardie angles a shot makes you see familiar things in a whole new way. He's patient and will wait until the light is just right," she said, adding, "His work is very precise."

Since Michaels and Truesdale had worked together on two previous books, she said he works independently of her. The two collaborated on "Hudson River Journey: Images from Lake Tear of the Clouds to New York Harbor" and "Adirondack High: Images of America's First Wilderness."

"We are never in the same town at the same time. I knew Hardie would understand what to capture for this new book. He's not just a photographer. He's an artist," she said.

Michaels said her research and the writing took a little over a year to complete; Truesdale's photography took somewhat longer because he wanted to capture a complete seasonal cycle.

Michaels said she and Truesdale did collaborate on selecting the images to appear in the book. "We selected 125 images from hundreds and hundreds of photos he took," she said.

For his part, Truesdale, interviewed by phone this week, said photographing for the book was very difficult.

"I'm used to bouncing around the towns and shooting things that attract me. That works out well for me and Joanne," he said.

Since many sites were either privately owned, or owned by not-for-profit organizations, Truesdale said he asked permission to take photographs. "Then, I made an appointment and hoped the light was right, the weather was the way I envisioned it," he said.

"I worried that the photos would lose some spontaneity," he said.

Truesdale said the publishing time frame is always difficult. "I thought I didn't get as many winter shots as I would have liked," but the deadline is the deadline," he said.

Michaels said, however, that Truesdale did capture the dark, dramatic skies and the sense of a lingering wilderness in some of his shots.

Even though Michaels did the research, Truesdale said he sometimes found a site or item that intrigued him and he photographed it. "Then, I sent the photo to Joanne and asked, 'Do you have any idea what this is,'" he asked.

His curiosity and her research paid off several times and both related this incident.

Truesdale said he was shooting in Piermont and came upon a small hole in the ground. No one he asked knew what it was, so he headed to the library and found an old guide book that identified it as the Mine Hole, a cavern on South Piermont Avenue.

"It's a visually interesting photo with an interesting history," Michaels said. She said John Moore, an enterprising free black man, operated a mill on the creek and needed grinding stones for his mill. He found some stones he could use on a hillside near the mill and began digging, eventually creating a mine. He got his millstones from this "mine" until the early 19th century. There was once a thriving black community (known as Mine Hole) along South Piermont Avenue and Piermont itself was a stop on the Underground Railroad, Michaels said.

Truesdale said the guidebook also came in handy in identifying two other sites: the Piermont train station, which, he said, is poorly marked, and the first old drawbridge in the area.

Michaels said another interesting snippet she uncovered is that paving stones off Water Street in Peekskill that were observed by author L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) on his travels to the city. These stones are reputed to have inspired Baum to invent "the yellow brick road" in his book, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

Michaels said she is continually intrigued by the marriage of industry with the arts in the Hudson Valley.

"The Hudson River School of painters first captured those dramatic skies and drew tourism up the river and away from European grand tours," Michaels said. "Artists popularized the region and the arts have continued to flourish here ever since," she said.

Michaels said the response to the book has been astonishing. "It's the kind of book that will have a long shelf life," she said. "People have bought them as gifts to send to friends or family who have moved from the area. They also buy one to keep," she said.

Michaels will read and sign books on Saturday at the Kingston Farmers Market, inside at the Old Dutch Church on Wall Street from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.